Digital Marketing

Digital marketing has taken the marketing industry by storm. While print marketing still holds power within the industry, it’s the digital marketing trends that are proving to hold precedence. While Web Strategies reported that in 2016 the five digital channels that saw large gains were email marketing, social media, online display advertising, mobile marketing and search, you’re likely wondering what this year will bring. After all, the internet and all of its trends are constantly changing and what was a marketing powerhouse last year could very well be old news this year. To help you strategize a marketing plan that will take your company to the next level, here’s our list of the digital marketing trends anticipated for the rest of 2017.

Live Video Streaming

Without a doubt, live video streaming will take off fully this year. Facebook and Instagram have already integrated live video capabilities into their channels, and other platforms are expected to follow suit. From the presidential debates to the Oscars, local news stories and personal experiences have been shared online via a live stream. It’s a trend that has the potential to draw in millions of people who are eager for a look at something that is happening right now.

People are drawn to the idea of seeing someone else’s perspective first hand and now live videos cater to this desire. This can significantly improve the way you build brand awareness and customer loyalty as you form a personal relationship with your customers. You’re offering them an exclusive look inside that not everyone will see. That is unless they’re online at that exact time.

Augmented Reality

The Pokémon Go trend may have died just as quickly as it grew in 2016, but it showed marketers the power of augmented reality. It proved that people are enthusiastic to indulge in AR experiences. The trick is to find out why Pokémon Go wasn’t successful for longer. Once you’ve figured that out and made the tweak, augmented reality could very well be the key to success in 2017.

The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to figure this out yourself. App developers and marketing experts are already working on this. On the other hand, you may want to start thinking of ways to can incorporate AR into your business, whether it’s with an advertisement, game or application.

Virtual Reality

Continuing from the previous theme, virtual reality is expected to be just as popular as AR in 2017. However, there seems to be some confusion over AR and VR, and in order to capitalize on these trends, you need to understand them.

To put it simply, AR is where you use technology in the real world, such as Pokémon Go to distort or add to what they are actually experiencing. People are able to interact with a different world within their own. VR is putting your consumers into a different world, using technology to escape reality.

As such, it’s predicted that companies will start to provide VR experiences to reach a wider range of consumers. Real estate agents can provide various property showings all in one place with VR and consumers can interact with other people from their living room. It’s a marketing trend that is inarguably going to change the industry in 2017. It’s the next step in evolution and because it’s so different from what companies, marketers and consumers are used to, it will be important to capitalize on it before you’re left behind.

Viral Marketing

“Viral” is one term that has flooded the internet as of late. Everyone wants their content to go viral. Whether it’s a video, article, status, photo – companies are now focusing on producing quality and catchy content that has the potential to go viral instead of producing batches of smaller, generic content. It’s about quality, not quantity.

Google’s algorithm considers the social status of your content to determine the ranking in the search engine. So the more likes, shares and engagement you have on your material, the better your search engine ranking will be. It’s a new twist to SEO that is expected to hold precedence over other SEO tactics.

Behavior-Based Email Marketing

Some countries, such as Canada, have an anti-spam law which has changed the way businesses interact with their consumers via email. This law has been in place since 2014, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise. However, consumer behavior continues to change, which results in the need for email marketing to also evolve and adapt to the trend.

Although consumers may have opted for your newsletter campaign, irrelevant content is now causing them to unsubscribe. As a result, behavior-based email marketing is expected to trend. Just like the ads on Google, emails are now tailored to what the consumer is doing online. For example, if your consumer is searching online for content marketers, your next email to them should be about content marketers. Generic emails are no longer a success and spam emails will jeopardize your marketing success, whether the anti-spam law is active in your country or not.

Visual Content

Forget about long social media statuses and blog posts; 2017 is the year for visual content. While you’ll still need to produce written content for search engine optimization, visual content will be the main source for driving traffic and leads. Everything from infographics to photos, digital guides, presentations and graphics will become the ultimate way to generate new leads.

Digital marketing trends are constantly changing year by year. What’s popular at the beginning of 2017 may be old news come the end of the year. It’s important to always stay current with any changes within the industry to ensure an optimal marketing strategy throughout the year. However, these top digital marketing trends are looking like they will not be going anywhere anytime soon. They’re a big hit with consumers and can be an even bigger success for your company.

The proliferation of digital marketing and social media resources has made it easier than ever to pitch to Main Street–without Madison Avenue budgets.

Mickey Mantas, ‎global agency and partner education consultant at LinkedIn, says these options let you be selective in how you spend digitally, and only “build a presence on the platforms that best represent you and your company.” Don’ t think of it as a one-time campaign; it’ll evolve and grow as your business does.

Chase assembled a panel of digital marketing experts—from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Yelp—to help you plan your 2017 social campaigns. Here are some of their suggestions:

Go mobile:We consume virtually all information on-the-go, so your marketing platform should be “mobile-centric” instead of just “mobile-friendly.” Messaging that isn’t designed for mobile access and search will be less valuable in 2017.

Create compelling content: Our attention spans continue to drop—now just eight seconds, on average, according to a Microsoft study. Grab readers’ attention with information tailored to their needs and they’ll come back for more. “Put your products, services, business and employees in your content,” says Christian Eberhardt, sales manager at Twitter. “Use imagery and video to drive engagement.”

Dive into data: Modestly-priced data-mining software can unearth sales and other customer information within your spreadsheets and reports, for insights you can act on: Personalizing offers and improving customer service.

Think big (without spending big): No business is too small for digital marketing. These resources let you spend wisely, to elevate visibility and reputation. Facebook’s Global Head of Financial Services Strategy, Neil Hiltz says, “if people aren’t aware of you, they’re not going to buy your product.” Focus on keyword search and search engine optimization to attract more attention.

Build a profile:Spending a few minutes on your LinkedIn and other social media profiles—and amplifying that visibility with well-placed, paid social media posts—will raise your digital profile and attract new customers better than traditional networking would.

Try “buy” buttons: Consumers can make purchases in one click, without even leaving Facebook, YouTube and other social media sites. These “buy buttons” are gaining popularity and increase the likelihood of a completed purchase, while freeing you from investing in costly app development.

Look locally: A hyper-local paid strategy targets customers by zip code, neighborhood or street name, connecting you with the audiences you most care about.

Email often: The so-called death of email marketing has been greatly exaggerated. In fact, email continues to be one of the most useful, cost-effective marketing tools: 78% of consumers aged 35–44 rank it as the communication platform they most prefer, according to MarketingSherpa. Used appropriately, it can be a powerful marketing tool.

Small businesses face challenges, and these five ways of growing your small business can differentiate your business from the others. Do not get distracted with spreading operations thin across a multitude of unnecessary platforms. Focus on simplification, customization and understanding your free cash flow. Once you accomplish those vital tasks, learning to invest the retained earnings may be the most challenging task of all, but in business, we call that a good problem.

1. Get Better At Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In the words of Bill Gates, “there will be only two kinds of businesses, those with an internet presence, and those with no business at all.” This one statement effectively illustrates the modern business landscape. People go to the internet for almost all information. What kind of internet presence does your small business have? Today you can’t just have a sexy website, instead you need to have a means for attracting visitors in the first place. This is where SEO comes in. With roughly 644 million active websites on the net, it is becoming very challenging to be discovered online. SEO involves a series of rules and protocols that helps bring your business out of the background and into the virtual highway. When someone is searching the web after a hailstorm for “Cleveland roofing service,” you want your business to be one of the first pages on Google. If you rank high enough organically, that’s free advertising. The easiest way to get better at SEO is to simply hire someone. Although that might be the best option for companies with a big enough budget, others might not be so fortunate. If you’re strapped for cash, I have two important recommendations. First, there is a free website that teaches small business owners how to optimize their websites for Local SEO. I can’t recommend this resource highly enough. Second, there is a book titled The Ultimate Guide to Link Building. This is an incredible resource to help people understand how to do SEO the right way.

2. Understand Lean Operations

A key element to running a business is organization and prioritization. Do not allow your business organization to disintegrate into an array of convoluted finger-pointing when it comes to operations. A good book to reference regarding lean business operations is Good to Great by Jim Collins. Good to Great evaluates the qualities of companies that not only grew but also maintained success beyond their growth periods. The book discusses the importance of simplification in business operations. Collins and his associates found that great businesses comply with three major operational components: level five leaders, the right staff and confronting brutal facts. Once businesses understand the intersection of those three components, the managers continue to optimize and simplify operations. What are bare bones to your small business? More importantly, what activities give you 80% of the value for 20% of the time?

3. Focus On Free Cash Flow

A small business needs to define their free cash flow. Businesses typically calculate free cash flow based on what is left over after all necessary financing expenditures are paid and non-cash items are adjusted on the net income. When a small business owner starts to think about business decisions from a free cash flow vantage point, new opportunities and perspectives are gained. More specifically, growth opportunities become more apparent. Where many business owners lose sight of this important consideration is when they make huge capital investments into infrastructure that has large depreciation costs and little long-term value is created. Having a balance sheet full of stagnant assets that add little long-term value creates a financially inefficient company. This is one of the reasons Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have been so successful through the years; they have always looked at the free cash flow of their own business and any new opportunities for growth.

4. It’s All About The Customers

Small businesses have a fundamental advantage over large corporations. Small businesses can interact with customers at a much more personal level. This is not to say that large corporations do not care about the customers, but it’s more challenging to put the CEO or other high-ranking executives face to face with new customers. Small businesses are local and can customize their services to their specific population. Take for example this dental practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Recently, I talked to one of the partners at this practice and he told me how important customer interactions were to their overall business model. For him, there was nothing more important than ensuring each customer had a satisfactory visit. Although this might seem like common sense for most business interactions, many companies get customer fatigue and complacency. Culture and focus on individual customer interactions is something that many small businesses take for granted and fail to realize the long-term importance. Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People demonstrates the value of placing the customer first. One pivotal element to focusing on the customer involves Covey’s rule of “seeking first to understand before being understood.” We live in an era of complete customization, from social media profiles to iPhone cases. People want what they want. Make sure you understand your customer or client, then you can cater to their specific desires. Additionally, billionaire Tony Hsieh wrote a book titled, Delivering Happiness, and it talks about how an online shoe company uses its customer service to create a competitive advantage over other retailers. Whether you’re running a local dental clinic or a large online shoe store, focus on the customer and treat each interaction as a vital source of future growth. This habit is the lifeblood of any great business.

5. Invest The Retained Earnings Intelligently

Your business runs well. You understand the balance sheet, and you want to explore other opportunities. You can reinvest your retained earnings back into the operational business, or you can choose to invest in external assets that are non-operational subsidiaries. What is the right decision? Well that’s the hard decision. I guess my point for bringing this discussion into the fold is to simply make the reader aware of the idea. Too often business owners think they need to reinvest retained earnings into the organic business. In many cases this is the right decision, but in some instances they aren’t doing the hard math. In fact, many business owners that have had successful companies in the first 10 years take the retained earnings and invest in another operational business. The failure comes when the overconfidence from the first success overshadows the realism in the second venture. New ventures that have low odds of success and huge upfront costs could mean the death of both businesses. Instead of taking low-probability choices with huge sums of money, a better choice might be to invest in non-operational assets (either private or public).